SV: SV: Plight of Buddhist art

[Arun Gupta]

Actually, Afghans in the US strongly appealed to President Reagan not to
support certain groups, knowing their nature; but the President threw
American support behind these groups because they were the most fanatical.
These groups continued fighting each other after the Soviets were thrown out.

Moreover, the Afghan militias existed well before the Soviet invasion -- they
were a creation of Pakistan, at least, so you will find the claim here :

http://www.jochen-hippler.de/Aufsatze/Afghanistan__Von_der__Volksdem/
afghanistan__von_der__volksdem.html

The author claims that a Pakistani General told him that the Pakistani ISI
began constituting the Afghan militias in 1972.

AFAIK, Rabbani and Hekmatyar date from back then, etc.  There is much to be
said on the topic, but this is Indology.

-Arun Gupta